There are a few directors who have made the made-for-TV movie a respectable genre, among them Fassbinder, Godard, Stephen Frears and Axel Corti. Last year, Corti's sweeping Whereto and Back trilogy about Jews fleeing World War II Europe justifiably garnered raves. Based on the Franz Werfel novella, A Woman's Pale Blue Handwriting deals with the plight of Austrian Jews just prior to WWII, but this time the treatment is slightly deflected. In 1936, Leonidas Tachezy, a Section Head in the Ministry of Education, is celebrating his 48th birthday when a letter arrives that threatens to change his life. Through this epistle, a past dalliance with one Vera Wormser is dredged up, along with all the frightening implications-he has a son born of a Jewish woman. What follows is the existential dilemma of a man who must pursue the truth or cower beneath the inhumanity of the times. Axel Corti, assisted by Kurt Rittig, has written a screenplay with the poetic force of its literary parent. The drama of Leonidas' pivotal decision could easily collapse into the humdrum of television fare were it not for the strongly nuanced characters and Corti's energetic narrative style. Part II, which includes a well-handled recap of earlier events, looks at one man's troubled heart with unspeakable clarity.